What we think: MLS: Make it a goooooal

June 16, 2013

Orlando still has a shot at scoring Central Florida's second big league team, a Major League Soccer franchise. But the clock is running down, and the City Beautiful faces stiff competition from Miami and Atlanta.

If leaders in Central Florida aren't willing to team up for this goal, Orlando will get shut out. Who knows when, if ever, the region would get another shot at a big league team?

Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs needs to match the urgency showed by Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. And the region's tourism titans need to lend the kind of decisive support they offered in 2006 to build Orlando's three downtown venues.

Orlando's bid hinges on building a new soccer stadium with about 20,000 seats, a condition set by Major League Soccer. We wish the league would be satisfied with the 65,000-seat Citrus Bowl, already in line for a $200 million upgrade. It's not. So the surest way for Orlando to take itself out of the running for a team is to balk at building a soccer stadium.

Months ago, the city and owners of the Orlando City Soccer Club came up with a workable plan for taxpayers and the team to share the cost of a new $110 million soccer stadium. But that plan counted on $30 million in sales-tax rebates, and a bill to make the rebates available died in this year's legislative session.

Now the city and the club are pursuing a plan to phase in the stadium construction, spending $70 million on the first phase. The new plan counts on using $20 million in taxes on tourists collected by Orange County.

Jacobs has expressed support for an MLS team in Orlando, but has been coy about committing tourist taxes. She even said it would be "premature" to talk about the issue when the panel that recommends uses for tourist taxes meets later this month.

Jacobs told the Sentinel she wants to reduce the cost of the stadium, and is open to the phased construction approach. She wants assurances that the stadium will play host to all-star soccer games and international contests. She wants the team's owners to put up more than the $30 million they've offered.

These are reasonable conditions. But the signals Jacobs has been sending lately — putting off a public discussion on dedicating the tax, removing a reference to soccer from her State of the County speech last week — suggest landing an MLS team isn't an urgent priority for her.

There's no time to lose. Decisions could be made on a new franchise when the league's owners meet on July 31.

When Jacobs' predecessor, Rich Crotty, wanted to build three downtown venues, he got crucial cover for his plan to raise the tourist tax a penny from leaders of Central Florida's theme parks and hotel industry. Now the same group of executives needs to step up again.

This shouldn't be a tough call for them. This time, no tax hike would be needed — just a diversion of some of the millions of public dollars being spent every year on tourism promotion.

And a new stadium that attracts big league soccer would boost tourism in other ways. It would turn Orlando into a destination for soccer fans from across the country and Latin America, who are known to travel to watch games.

For those who recoil at the thought of spending tax money on another venue for a sports team, it's important to keep in mind that the soccer stadium would be publicly owned, and available for other events that make sense in a venue of that size, including college soccer and lacrosse tournaments. Those events also would draw visitors, boost area businesses and generate tax revenue.

Jacobs and the tourism leaders need to get behind Orlando's bid for big league soccer — while the city still has a chance to win.